Former President Vicente Fox will Keynote the NCIA’s 4th Annual Cannabis Business Summit & Expo

The National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) announced on May 4 that former President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, will be the keynote speaker at the NCIA’s 4th Annual Cannabis Business Summit & Expo. Fox, since leaving office, has become an outspoken advocate of cannabis who is known for unreservedly speaking his mind at public speeches.

“Once considered an unlikely advocate for cannabis, the former conservative leader of Mexico began speaking on the record in favor of legalization in 2011, attributing his support of cannabis policy reform to Mexico’s escalating problems with drug violence and corruption,” the NCIA stated in a press release. “Citing it as ‘a change of paradigm,’ President Fox sees ending marijuana prohibition as a vehicle for peace in Mexico, removing a vital instrument of power, control, and authority from the hands of cartels in Latin America.”

Fox is expected to address the failed war on drugs and how the global trend of legalizing cannabis is snatching business from cartels. In 2011, Fox worked with the Cato Institute and spoke at the organization’s “Ending the Global War on Drugs” conference.

Fox served as President of Mexico from 2000 to 2006. The times have changed and the stigma surrounding cannabis has changed drastically since the Fox presidency, when he took a conservative approach to controlling illicit cannabis activity. On April 28, Mexico’s Congress voted to approve medical cannabis in Mexico, and Fox’s appearance couldn’t come at a better time.

Vicente Fox uses Twitter as an outlet and has spoken out against immigration and the wounded relationship between Mexico and the United States. In 2015, Fox said that Mexico would legalize all drugs “within a decade.” Legalizing drugs would hurt cartels more than the current and fruitless approach. Fox’s expertise as a politician and a former Coca-Cola executive will provide unique insight into the possibilities of legal cannabis in the United States and Mexico.